March 29, 2013

I had a wonderful trip and am now back in the swing at work ... and gradually finding my way back to my stamp studio. Today's post is quickie. Though I packed a few things to play with in Brooklyn, nothing was completed. I had been wanting to combine things from the Artisan Embellishment Kit with the lovely Fan Fair papers. They seemed meant for each other. Here's the first from this pairing:

The map print in this DSP collection has so many looks with it's broad blending of colors. I had been playing with this one morning in Brooklyn but due to my quick packing job forgot to bring any Crumb Cake cards. That proved to be the missing piece and I finished this card last night.

The wide bridal type ribbon is so lovely it's almost hard to cut into it but it's effects are SO lovely, don't you think?

March 23, 2013

I am visiting Brooklyn for an extra long weekend visiting one of my daughters as she starts her spring break from her first year teaching position. A well deserved break I might add! She's teaching ESL and taking grad school classes at the same time.

Yesterday I managed a bus ride plus a train ride to meet her at her school at the end of the day. We celebrated the beginning of her break with a trip to the Park Slope neighborhood for a manicure and dinner at a vegan restaurant. We spent the rest of the evening at her place with a glass of wine and Pinterest, looking for ideas for her studio apartment. This morning we're off to check out the Boston Flea etc.

We are also on a mission to find the best cookies in New York. Suggestions would be appreciated in case I have any readers who frequent the area.

Before I left for the airport I took about 5 minutes to pack a few papercraft supplies and partial creations "just in case". DH found my adhesive on the floor after I left so if I do make anything it might be held together with nail polish. I did remember the dimensionals though. Don't leave home without them!

March 20, 2013

I hit triple today with this card. The pinterest picture challenge (Poppy Cake) from SCS's CAS challenge, SCS' Mixability challenge to use splatters, and the Color Throwdown Challenge:

I took out my ink refills and Flower Garden embossing folder for another variation of Wet/Dry Embossing. I used the
refills because I wanted my red to be intense. The green was actually
Gumball Green but it too is quite intense and looks close to Graden
Green.

I've never been much of a splatter person. I just set the art
piece in the waste basket and flicked some ink onto it with my
paintbrush.

"Above and Beyond" is from one of my favorite word sets, One in a Million.

Stamping your sentiment on a vellum strip allows you to try out different sentiments with an image or layout with out risking a mistake to your base image.

If you've followed my blog for the past month or so you know I've played with this technique quite a bit lately. You can find out more about it by checking out my Chevron Cards and an earlier Manhatten Flower card.

Of course Stampin' Up! has an awesome Poppy stamp, Pleasant Poppies which would also be perfect for this challenge but I don't have it. Not yet anyway.

I don't have time to write much more this morning but I thought you might like to see the other ideas I tried out for this challenge before deciding I like the embossing folder card the best.

March 19, 2013

Secret Garden (this time without the framelits - it is a lovely stamp set in it's own right.

Blooming with Kindness supplies the sentiment stamp

Pool Party, Pink Pirouette and Basic Gray ink,

Very Vanilla taffeta - it's retired but I've got a secret stash... you could also use Very Vanilla seam binding

Sale-a-bration 2013 comes to a close this Friday, March 22. If you place your last SAB 2013 ($50 merchandise minimum - US only) order through my Stampin' Up Website, I'll send you a special card kit to make 3 of my Pool Party/Secret Garden card designs - I'll supply the pre-cut and embossed papers/you supply the stamps and ink. Offer ends this Friday, March 22. Kits will be mailed out Thursday, March 28.

March 17, 2013

Here is a card I created during our January Stampin' at the Pad retreat with members of my Stampin' Up! downline. I've since included it in gifts and, as a result, ended taught it to a small group of novice stampers last weekend.

Not really having a plan other than to try out my ombre idea with embossing folders, I started by applying Island Indigo marker to recessed areas of the Chevron folder.

At the top I just put a dot at each tip of the first row, a solid line in the second row, two solid lines in the third and so on until I had this:

Then I cut a large piece of Whisper White card stock that was larger than the folder. You just want to have it ready.

I sprayed the inked partion of the folder with 4-6 spritz of water from a recycled Stampin' Mist bottle. You could use more or less. There isn't a right or wrong here - just different!

Then I carefully placed the card stock in the folder so that it was straight and ran it through the Big Shot. Using a piece that is plenty large helps you do this quickly. A larger piece of card stock also helps absorb any extra water.

It doesn't look particularly great when it comes out but I set it aside to dry. At first I just set it on some extra acrylic plates. Sometimes I set a few dies on top of the pieces when they are partly dry and a little curled and let them straighten over night.

I didn't do that today and I was able to straighten them easily by securing them well to either colored of Naturals card stock.

I took a few small liberties with this week's SCS CAS sketch, which makes quick work for paper scraps.

I chose Stampin' Up!s Fan Fair and combined it with a greeting from Oh, Hello, stamped with Island Indigo. I do think the bolder sentiment works well with this sketch.

The sketch required the sentiment to be on the middle strip and I wasn't comfortable placing that in the middle of the card.

So, I graduated the sizes of the strips from largest at the bottom and smallest at the top and shifted them all up a bit. The card is Crumb Cake. I really like how well the Fan Fair papers work with this color.

I rounded the corners, added the butterflies punched with the Elegant Butterfly Punch and the Bitty Butterfly Punch. I was ready to call it done when I got the bright idea to add a paper pierced butterfly in one of the corners.

There's a lesson here. Don't try out something you haven't used before on a piece of work you are already happy with. The pierced butterfly pattern is great when it is around a stamped or punched butterfly but it really doesn't have the detail to stand on it's own, at least not with the level of detail present in the other elements of this card. Luckily it got better when I punched out another butterfly and set it inside the pierced holes.

I'm also posting this on SCS's March Creative Crew DSP/color challenge which
is to use the Fan Fair Designer Series Paper and/or Island Indigo. You can play this challenge too: Create a project with Island Indigo and Fan Fair dsp or some of the colors in that DSP. You must use Island Indigo, though. If you have a Splitcoast Gallery post it with the keywords CCREW0313DF, Creative Crew, SUO or SUM. SUO stands for Stampin' Up! only; SUM stands for Stampin' Up Mostly. BTW, DSP stands for Designer Series Paper.

Disclaimer

The content in this blog is the sole responsibility of Chris Smith as an independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator and the use of and content of classes, services, or products offered is not endorsed by Stampin' Up! Images copyright Stampin' Up!